The thing is, I'm okay with this ranking. I thought Dalton was a solid Bond and got a raw deal. He got criticized for the same things that Daniel Craig is praised for (not to take anything away from Craig, naturally).

Roger Moore for the second overall Bond, though, is not what I had in mind.

If you ever read the books, Dalton was actually closer. That doesn't mean those movies were better or that his acting was superior.... just that his portrayal and the script writing was more Bond than other Bonds.

Roger Moore is worse than Lazenby, in my estimation. That may have had more to do with the insane slapstickery and bad wisecracking in many of his movies, which he can't control, but he's the one who said the words, so ultimately it's his character who gets sullied.

I actually liked Brosnan, but his movies suffer from some of the same problems as Moore's, though to a leser extent. And I'm sorry, but Daniel Craig's movies are about some Michael Bay action hero who happens to be named James Bond, not the same character that was played by the preceding five actors. He's a great actor and I want to have Layer Cake's babies, but his movies just don't grab me.

kronicfeld:Roger Moore is worse than Lazenby, in my estimation. That may have had more to do with the insane slapstickery and bad wisecracking in many of his movies, which he can't control, but he's the one who said the words, so ultimately it's his character who gets sullied.

Pretty much that, more or less.

They tried to nullify the hokier, jokier elements of Moore's Bond by making him something of a jerkass (like in parts of The Man with the Golden Gun), but it doesn't quite even out.

I think Lazenby gets the rawest of deals for having done only one movie, and this had nothing to do with his acting abilities (just the misfortune of having a really bad agent). The thing is, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best of the series, and it's not as if Lazenby had *no* part in making that happen. The conclusion of OHMSS was particularly potent, and it would be interesting to see the other Bonds try to carry the emotionality of those final moments.

kronicfeld:I actually liked Brosnan, but his movies suffer from some of the same problems as Moore's, though to a leser extent.

Brosnan's good as Bond, it's just that his films could get a tad ridiculous, even for this franchise. Die Another Day is borderline unwatchable. They got *so* many things wrong there, and you felt bad that it had to be Brosnan's swan song.

kronicfeld:And I'm sorry, but Daniel Craig's movies are about some Michael Bay action hero who happens to be named James Bond, not the same character that was played by the preceding five actors. He's a great actor and I want to have Layer Cake's babies, but his movies just don't grab me.

I really enjoyed Casino Royale, but Quantum of Solace tried a bit too hard to be something in a Jason Bourne-ish vein. So... we're talking about 50/50.

Craig might move up in the rankings, depending on how good his portrayal in Skyfall is. I hope it leans more towards Bond and away from Bourne.

RobertBruce:Oh, and just because I need to say it in Bond discussions: QoS is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

There was a time when I thought, "Quantum of Solace has to be the worst Bond film."

Then I sat down and forced myself to watch Die Another Day again.

Quantum of Solace has its moments, however few and far between they may be.

Die Another Day seemed like it made a conscious and dedicated effort to get as many things wrong about the film series as possible. You almost get the impression that the director (who went on to direct xXx: State of the Union, incidentally) never sat down and watched a Bond film in his life.

I'd have to go through the lesser Moore (not a pun, I swear) films like Moonraker to determine if QoS is the second worst in the series. As it stands, QoS is pretty far down. Among other things, STOP SHAKING THE CAMERA AND MAKING JUMP CUTS. Heaven forbid someone tries to follow your action sequences.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener:I'd have to go through the lesser Moore (not a pun, I swear) films like Moonraker to determine if QoS is the second worst in the series. As it stands, QoS is pretty far down. Among other things, STOP SHAKING THE CAMERA AND MAKING JUMP CUTS. Heaven forbid someone tries to follow your action sequences.

There was a time when I thought, "Quantum of Solace has to be the worst Bond film."

Then I sat down and forced myself to watch Die Another Day again.

Quantum of Solace has its moments, however few and far between they may be.

Die Another Day seemed like it made a conscious and dedicated effort to get as many things wrong about the film series as possible. You almost get the impression that the director (who went on to direct xXx: State of the Union, incidentally) never sat down and watched a Bond film in his life.

I'd have to go through the lesser Moore (not a pun, I swear) films like Moonraker to determine if QoS is the second worst in the series. As it stands, QoS is pretty far down. Among other things, STOP SHAKING THE CAMERA AND MAKING JUMP CUTS. Heaven forbid someone tries to follow your action sequences.

I agree with pretty much everything here. I fell asleep TWICE while watching QoS (at home, not in theatre...but still) and Die Another Day was just ludicrously awful. A remote-controlled invisible car with shotguns in the hood? Why not just send the car on the missions?

My dad is a huge Bond fan and I grew up watching the Connery and Moore films with him. I prefer Connery by a landslide, simply because I feel he was able to convey the potent lethality and the suave nature of the character (although I've never read any of the books, so I don't know how "accurate" that portrayal is). Moore, on the other hand, seemed almost like a clown. Maybe that had more to do with his movies than the actor, but I just could never take him seriously.

Moore also stuck with the character for too long. According to wiki he was 57 by the time View To A Kill was made, and it showed.

miss diminutive:I agree with pretty much everything here. I fell asleep TWICE while watching QoS (at home, not in theatre...but still) and Die Another Day was just ludicrously awful. A remote-controlled invisible car with shotguns in the hood? Why not just send the car on the missions?

On top of all that, the special effects are so... Mario Paint-ish. It takes bad special effects to forcibly remove you from the movie's action, and this does just that.

And I don't need to tell you the ridiculousness of driving an invisible car in the snow. Your car may be invisible, yes, but your tire tracks? Not so much.

miss diminutive:My dad is a huge Bond fan and I grew up watching the Connery and Moore films with him. I prefer Connery by a landslide, simply because I feel he was able to convey the potent lethality and the suave nature of the character (although I've never read any of the books, so I don't know how "accurate" that portrayal is). Moore, on the other hand, seemed almost like a clown. Maybe that had more to do with his movies than the actor, but I just could never take him seriously.

Heh, Moore was a literal clown in his appearance in Octopussy!

Connery, though, was effortlessly and naturally cool. He could be callous and tough as nails, but still have a non-in-your-face sense of sly humor.

miss diminutive:Moore also stuck with the character for too long. According to wiki he was 57 by the time View To A Kill was made, and it showed.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener:Connery, though, was effortlessly and naturally cool. He could be callous and tough as nails, but still have a non-in-your-face sense of sly humor.

His movies weren't generic action flicks. They were espionage movies. Callousness, sly humor, etc were part and parcel of his mission. Look at From Russia With Love; it wasn't a movie about a ticking time bomb, but about acquiring a piece of technology. And the climax wasn't a ninja fight on top of a crane on the top of a skyscraper that the good guy wins because of [DEUS EX MACHINA], it was a chess game in a train car where the bad guy had the upper hand the entire time.

kronicfeld:His movies weren't generic action flicks. They were espionage movies. Callousness, sly humor, etc were part and parcel of his mission. Look at From Russia With Love; it wasn't a movie about a ticking time bomb, but about acquiring a piece of technology. And the climax wasn't a ninja fight on top of a crane on the top of a skyscraper that the good guy wins because of [DEUS EX MACHINA], it was a chess game in a train car where the bad guy had the upper hand the entire time.

Mmhmm. Word to all of that.

And that fight sequence was wonderfully and believably brutal. Robert Shaw made for one of the best villains of the series.

kronicfeld:His movies weren't generic action flicks. They were espionage movies. Callousness, sly humor, etc were part and parcel of his mission. Look at From Russia With Love; it wasn't a movie about a ticking time bomb, but about acquiring a piece of technology. And the climax wasn't a ninja fight on top of a crane on the top of a skyscraper that the good guy wins because of [DEUS EX MACHINA], it was a chess game in a train car where the bad guy had the upper hand the entire time.

You know what else made those movies?

The pacing. You look at the Connery films, and you see that they took their time going where they needed to go, and it worked. The emphasis wasn't too heavy on spectacle. It wasn't about a slam-bang-dash ADD-riddled affair.

To beat the glue out of a dead horse, Die Another Day keeps throwing things at the viewer as if to say, "We don't trust you to not get bored."

Mugato:Pierce Brosnan was the best after Connery. He had the cool, suave calculating thing down and he was a cold blooded killer when he had to be. It just sucked that his last couple movies were lame.

The World is Not Enough had some redeeming qualities.

I really dug the reappearance of Robbie Coltrane as Valentin.

And of course, there's Q's final scene, one of the best farewell scenes in a movie (even if ol' Desmond hadn't intended that to be his last Bond movie).

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener:Mugato: Pierce Brosnan was the best after Connery. He had the cool, suave calculating thing down and he was a cold blooded killer when he had to be. It just sucked that his last couple movies were lame.

The World is Not Enough had some redeeming qualities.

I really dug the reappearance of Robbie Coltrane as Valentin.

And of course, there's Q's final scene, one of the best farewell scenes in a movie (even if ol' Desmond hadn't intended that to be his last Bond movie).

I actually liked The World is Not Enough a lot. Yeah, there was a nuclear weapons scientist named Christmas Jones played by Denise Richards but it's a farking James Bond movie. I think it was a solid Bond film. Not as good as GoldenEye but better than any of the Roger Moore efforts.

Mugato:I actually liked The World is Not Enough a lot. Yeah, there was a nuclear weapons scientist named Christmas Jones played by Denise Richards but it's a farking James Bond movie. I think it was a solid Bond film. Not as good as GoldenEye but better than any of the Roger Moore efforts.

Denise Richards, while she works as eye candy, is the weak link here.

And I defend the use of Elektra King AND Renard as the villains. That, and Judi Dench got to do stuff as M this time around.

I mean, c'mon, TWiNE is practically Vertigo compared to Die Another Day.

Sheryl Crow's was alright, but Madonna's was absolute crap, which fit the rest of the movie.

Garbage's "The World is Not Enough" is my favorite Bond song. Madonna's was shiat. And yes, so was the movie. Although the beginning, with Bond spending months being tortured was kind of cool but they didn't do anything with it.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener:I think Lazenby gets the rawest of deals for having done only one movie, and this had nothing to do with his acting abilities (just the misfortune of having a really bad agent). The thing is, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best of the series, and it's not as if Lazenby had *no* part in making that happen. The conclusion of OHMSS was particularly potent, and it would be interesting to see the other Bonds try to carry the emotionality of those final moments.

I have a rabid Bond-fan friend who maintains that Lazenby was the best screen Bond, period.

The thing is: there are flashes of brilliance in his performance: his disbelief holding his dead wife, his burglarizingthe office of the Swiss solicitor, his casual brutality in the fight scenes were all among the best things ever donein any of the films.

But he also had far too many moments of wooden acting (his love scenes with Tracy in the barn comes to mindimmediately, and the whole Hilary Bray masquerade) that off set all his good moments, and that comes straightfrom his inexperience as an actor. I also think that Roger Moore's 'smirking smoothie' Bond characterization isdirectly inspired by Lazenby's.

But, don't be too quick to blame his management for his problem: he was by all accounts a complete egomaniacwho stopped caring after he got the part with (supposedly) a 3 picture deal. After filming was done, he refusedto do any publicity, went away on a cruise (supposedly for a year), and showed up at the premier looking asun-Bond-like as possible with a full beard and generally unkempt. Even if he had put in a fantastic performance,he didn't show himself to be reliable. Had he taken the time to hone his natural acting talent I do believe hecould have truly been THE definitive screen Bond, but he just wasn't up to the task.

so, FWIW, my rankings for the Bond actors are:

Connery/Craig (too close to call, though Connery has a slight edge because he was the originator)BrosnanRoger Moore (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY proved he could be Badass Bond)Timothy Dalton (didn't get enough time in the role, and had horrible scripts that lost the point of Bond as a spy)Lazenby.

I've been thinking about this with Encore's Month of Bond that just finished.

The thing is, I'm okay with this ranking. I thought Dalton was a solid Bond and got a raw deal. He got criticized for the same things that Daniel Craig is praised for (not to take anything away from Craig, naturally).

Roger Moore for the second overall Bond, though, is not what I had in mind.

Quantum of Solace was doomed because they only had half a script and the screenwriters went on strike, so they stretched it out with agonizingly long chase scenes.Casino Royale was one of the best Bond films ever, so I'm willing to give the Craig reboot another chance.

Mugato:Garbage's "The World is Not Enough" is my favorite Bond song. Madonna's was shiat. And yes, so was the movie. Although the beginning, with Bond spending months being tortured was kind of cool but they didn't do anything with it.

Moore almost requires two entries: goofy over the top villain Bond (Octopussy, Moonraker, View to a Kill) and holy-crap-he-CAN-play badass Bond (Live and Let Die, Man With the Golden Gun, Spy Who Loved Me). It's the inconsistency of the stories that weaken his status. Still, my ranking:

1) Connery2) Dalton3) Brosnan4) Moore5) Craig6) Lazenby

Brosnan and Dalton are almost a tie. Craig may move up in the standings as he matures in the role, but I'm still not sold on James Blond 'the blunt instrument'.

I wish Never Say Never would get the respect it deserves. I've always considered it a "legit" and "canon" Bond movie, despite the different production company.

Living Dayslights is probably one of my favourite bonds. I am hoping Skyfall will pull Daniel Craig out of the lull. I think he's a good Bond, but the movies proper have been missing something. They've been trying SOOO hard to make him "bond". Like the retconning of the Goldeneye Video Game: Pierce out, Craig in. It seems so.... weird. The over all plot of Bloodstone was decent for a light-Bond story. I am kinda glad that the other media is being considered now to help shape the new bond mythos... but dang... Goldeneye Reloaded? Really?

Stile4aly:Say what you will about Moore being a ridiculous Bond, For Your Eyes only was a great film.

This. The Man with the Golden Gun was also fairly decent also. However, we also had to deal with Octopussy and Moonraker amongst the other junk that clutter up the Bond legacy When they didn't go with too much camp, Moore made a decent Bond. However, that is not how they ended up for most of the movies.

I did like Timothy Dalton a lot. I thought he made a decent Bond and would have liked a couple of more movies out of him..

As for Daniel Craig, Casino Royale was just too darn long. It looked like it was the end of the movie and then they threw the whole Venice thing on there.

Saying it again: for all the warranted hate Roger Moore gets as Bond, he is in what I think is the second best overall Bond film in my opinion -- For Your Eyes Only. The flick's beauty, the Greek Bond girl, and ability to mesh Moore's personality with good action scenes outshines the goofy parts like the hockey assassins.

Timothy Dalton's Bond outings were pretty damn good. License to Kill goes on a different path and might seem like it's ripping off Lethal Weapon-style films, but it's not as off course as Brosnan's Die Another Day, which takes the cake as the worst.

Sean Connery with Goldfinger is still No. 1, and my jury is still out with Craig.

Pierce Brosnan was supposed to get the Bond role after Roger Moore. However, his TV show, Remington Steele, got picked up for another season and he couldn't get out of the contract to go film the Bond movie, so the role went to Timothy Dalton. So imagine Brosnan in The Living Daylights and License to Kill instead of Dalton.

My Bond list would probably be.1. Connery2. Craig3. Moore (just because he played it so long, and I saw the films as a kid. They're super-cheesy now, especially the flying AMC Matador in The Man with the Golden Gun.)4. Brosnan5. Dalton6. Lazenby